Some musicians are born that way, with a mic in one hand and a burning desire to make music.
Not Chicago native Lance Washington.
Music wasn’t on his radar until a University of Arizona friend asked him to write the end-credit score for a short film.
That little job led Washington, 31, down a path that has defined his adult life.
This weekend, Washington, who goes by the stage name Lando Chill, joins a lineup of fellow hip-hop artists that includes Cash Lansky, Tommy Will, Marley B and Murs for the final installment of Hotel Congress’s long-running Labor Day weekend HoCo Fest. The hip-hop show at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St., is one of three on Saturday, Sept. 2. HoCo Homecoming, the 18th and last HoCo fest, runs through Monday, Sept. 4, at Hotel Congress’s three venues: Club Congress, Hotel Plaza stage and the Century Room.
This will be Lando Chill’s first HoCo fest since he was on the lineup in 2017, the year before he left Tucson for Los Angeles.
Washington spent eight years in Tucson after arriving in 2010 to attend the University of Arizona. He started out as a film major before switching to journalism and then, finally, anthropology with an emphasis on critical race theory. Although he doesn’t work in anthropology — he has a couple of day jobs, including as a barista to make ends meet with his music career — Washington said he uses anthropology in his poetry and songwriting.
His music fits comfortably in rap and hip-hop, with influences drawn from reggae, pop and folk.
He likes to think of his music as being more “genre-less” within the realm of hip-hop, encompassing graffiti, spoken word and the quintessential scratching and sampling that beckons to hip-hop’s late 1960s to early 1970s origins.
“I don’t mind being under the umbrella of hip-hop because hip-hop is the amalgamation of a lot,” he said, then explained how he has an easier time seeing his music through a hip-hop lens because, as a Black man, the music industry dominated largely by white men tends to pigeonhole African-Americans into a hip-hop space.
Saturday’s show will be his first big show in Tucson since he played Club Congress in 2022. He also returned earlier this year for a poetry event at the UA.
When he started his music career, Lando Chill signed a three-record deal with the Tucson-based Mello Music Group, an underground label whose roster includes Apollo Brown, Oddisee, Quelle Chris, Open Mike Eagle and L’Orange.
When he satisfied his contract, Lando Chill, who during his time in Tucson was a regular on stage at Che’s Lounge and Club Congress, left Mello and went indie.
Returning to Tucson for HoCo Fest brings back fond memories for Lando Chill.
“One of my favorite memories of that festival is of me and my band … opened up for Thundercat,” he recalled of his 2017 show supporting the Los Angeles singer-songwriter and bassist. “That was fun.”
“I think it’s incredible that (HoCo Fest is) able to have the amount of talented artists on each bill to hold folks attention and to satiate people’s need for good tunes,” he said, adding that he loves coming home to Tucson. “It’s going to be super fun.”
Tucson Landmarks: Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St., opened in 1919 as a luxurious mainstay for visitors arriving in the Old Pueblo.
The downtown landmark has kept much of its history alive in the past century, while also bringing modern amenities to Tucson natives and tourists.
Video by Riley Brown / For the Arizona Daily Star
